Asalaamu alaikum

Will there be Women speakers or Scholars? If not – can you explain why?

Some of the “Scholars” listed in the flyer are male yet do not have an Islamic Studies degree and some do not have a degree that would really qualify them at the level of “Scholar” or what we say is a Alim in Islam. The Ulema in Islam traditionally had a very intensive education in Islam, not just a bachelor’s degree in Islamic Studies in some online University.

A:
Assalamu ‘alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

All praise be to Allah, and may his peace and blessings be on the last and best prophet and messenger, Muhammad.

Even though I can’t see what the problem is with the lack of a female speaker, but may Allah reward the sister for her advice. She must mean well. I know that she is active and she tries to help the Muslim community which we all aspire to serve.
As for the comment about the use of the word scholars, it is a very reasonable one, and must be appreciated by all of us. Certainly, the word “scholars” doesn’t fit the entire list according to our standard as Muslims, and the use of it was somewhat liberal as indicated in the original message, but from a western perspective, it is acceptable. After all, there are people described as scholars and experts in Islam and they don’t memorize juz’ ‘amma. Now, the dilemma is that you can not belittle and undermine the Muslim leadership where the non-Muslims elevate their leaders excessively. That is not in the best interest of the community, who will develop disinterest in their leaders and lack of respect. Most of the people on this list are at least memorizers of the entire Quran. That is remarkable in the western standard, and if some clergy in other religions memorized their entire holy book word by word, they would declare him an authority in the religion. On the other hand, you have to be careful with the titles so that you don’t give people excessive self confidence and false self perception that can be detrimental to their sincerity and conduct. It is a fine balance and one that is very hard to reach.
There is no agreement between the scholars on the use of the word; and while some have very strict definition that would make the number of scholars in the whole ummah zero to less than ten, others have a very liberal use of the word that would make hundreds of imams and khateebs in the Americas qualify.
But, except for procedural reasons, such as in the membership of organizations or academic posts, no learned one looks at the academic degree or where it was earned from to quantify the knowledge of individuals/scholars.
Our earlier scholars didn’t have much discussion about the definition of a scholar, but rather the definition of a mujtahid, which is the highest caliber of scholars. Even there, they varied widely from people who were too liberal to those who were too strict. Many accept imam Ghazali’s conditions, which basically are:
• Proficiency in the Arabic language which allows him to have a correct understanding of the Quran.
• Sufficient knowledge of the Maccan and Madinan parts of the Quran and the circumstances of revelation, as well as knowing the abrogated and abrogating.
• Knowledge of the verses pertaining to rulings (ayat-ul-ahkaam), which are about 500 verses, according to al-Ghazali.
• Knowledge of all interpretations of the (ayat-ul-ahkaam), especially those of the companions.
• Satisfactory knowledge of the Sunnah, its narrations and the relative reliability of the narrators, as well as abrogation within the Sunnah. According to some, about 1200 ahadeeth are essential to know, but not to memorize, as per al-Ghazali, who felt it would be sufficient to know where to find them.
• Knowledge of the objectives of sharia, such as the protection of the religion, life, intellect, wealth, lineage and honor. As well as satisfactory knowledge of the legal principals, like “matters are but according to their intentions”, the removal of hardship and balancing between harm and benefit…etc.
• Knowledge of the fundamentals of jurisprudence that would enable him to sort out between the general and specific and the absolute and the limited…etc.
• knowledge of the rules of sound analogy making (qiyas) to allow him to find rulings for novelties based on the scriptural evidence that didn’t directly address them.
• Knowledge of the consensus and disagreement, i.e. being able to distinguish between the rulings that are agreed upon and those that are controversial.
• Sincerity and devotion as well as acting according to the knowledge s/he has.
Now, even that definition doesn’t end the controversy, because they would disagree on how much of the fundamentals of jurisprudence should the person know to satisfy that condition…etc. Some use that very definition to say there are no mujtahids whatsoever in the Muslim world, or more precisely Mujtahid Mutlaq (absolute). Others use it to say there are thousands of them.
What we can’t afford is to be negative and undermine the ummah and its leaders. We should encourage them to improve their scholarship and pray for them to lead us in the right direction. And if the imams of the various mosques are not of those leaders of the Muslim community, then who?
It is finally to be remembered that if some individuals on the list didn’t qualify, while others did, you would include them under the same title with no harm. Allah referred to a group of the angels and Iblees as angels. He didn’t say “behold, when your lord said to the angels and Iblees” as we all know.
Despite all of that, had I written that flyer, I would have said shaykhs – which is a much looser term – instead of scholars. But, I am sure that the brother who wrote it was well meaning as much as I am sure the sister who made that comment is.
May Allah reward him for his great efforts to organize this event and may He reward the sister for her advice that we must accept and benefit from.